Little Church on the Prairie

Because I was alone and could stop whenever and wherever I wanted on my trip through North Dakota, I turned down a few country roads to look at the old country churches which I LOVE.  They are such a rich part of our heritage and sadly they are disappearing along with the old barns.



As I stopped at each one, I couldn't help but notice the lawns were all mowed and I also couldn't help but think of all the history and memories in each church, all of life's major events~ baptisms, Sunday School lessons, confirmation, weddings, anniversaries, festivals, and funerals, etc. that have taken place there.  The millions of prayers and songs of worship lifted up within those walls.  The faith and hope of many strengthened and renewed each Sunday.

The doors that welcome.

The bell that calls to worship.

My favorite part of the old country church is the steeple and the bell. The steeples drew me across the prairie as they did our pioneer ancestors. They didn't have GPS or google, they just scanned the horizon for the steeple.

Of course, the church that holds the fondest memories and sentiment for me is the one below that I grew up attending~ Zion Lutheran Church, built in 1915 by my Grandfather, Einar Roness, and my Great Grandfather, Michael Glasoe, and others.

To my delight the door was unlocked so I was able to go inside.  They still have services here occasionally.  I was paid $10 a Sunday to play piano when I was in high school and thought that was pretty sweet.  Our family sat about four rows up from the back on the left side.  We took up a whole pew and more sometimes.

 The beautiful stained glass window in the front of the church of Jesus praying in the garden.

I took some time to visit my Mom's grave.

 Thanks for visiting these old churches with me~ maybe next time you are on a road trip you will notice a steeple here or there and will feel it drawing you as well.  Perhaps?



Little Hotel on the Prairie

While back home we had to check out the progress of my sister and brother-in-law's project of restoring the old Traveller's Hotel in Noonan.  They have made some progress since the last time we saw it in December, including replacing most of the windows.  Here's just a few shots:

These rounded windows on the side of the building will be next to replace.

The tin ceilings will be awesome once they are repaired and painted.

This chair was originally in the lobby of the hotel and was recently donated back to them.

One of the guest rooms, the doors and trim will all be the original.

My Dad coming up the cool old staircase from the lobby up to the guest rooms.

The ceiling and trim in the lobby are black.

When taking up the old floors they discovered this layer of insulation- buffalo hair between sheets of paper!!

One the front of the building the bricks are a little soft and many people have carved their names in them over the years.  I don't remember doing it but I found my name plain as day! 

In two spots even, there's only one LKZ so it had to be me, and right underneath was my boyfriend's name.(!)

Restoring this place is still a massive project but they are making great progress and I admire them for taking it on.  We decided the next time we are together for a reunion (hopefully next summer) we will meet again back home and it will be a work weekend! 



North Dakota~ Land of 10,000 Lakes

Oops, thats Minnesota~ Land of 10,000 Lakes, no wait..... it IS North Dakota.  I've seen it with my own eyes.  Water everywhere.  I travelled home to the farm recently and filled up my "farm girl" tank.  O how I miss ND in the summer... winter not so much, but summer there is amazing!  I made the trip by myself this time since everyone else had work or camp.  It was a long drive as usual but I enjoyed the time to myself and being able to stop wherever and whenever I darn well pleased, right! 

Here's the Mouse (Souris) River where it crosses Hwy 2, just East of Minot. Water on all sides as far as you could see. 



Here's an aerial photo of a neighbor's farm just a couple miles from my Dad's-  his farm would be in the upper left corner, just out of view. It is photo of a photo I took when we ran into this neighbor at the Threshing Bee.  The road  to town has been under water for many, many weeks.  Something like only 20% of the crops were able to be planted in Divide Co. this spring. :(  Dad says in all his years he has never seen anything like it, and he's been around 89 years now!



We celebrated Rollie's 89th birthday and suprised him with a golf cart so he can tool around the farm to get the mail and out to his garden and shop, etc.  I think he likes it :)



All my siblings were able to be there- Yay! 
Here we are youngest to oldest....



Besides having a Zimmerman Reunion, the main event of the weekend was a Roness Reunion (my Mom's side) in Noonan and had over a hundred there.  Over a hundred people I mean, but the temperature was almost that too!  It was great to catch up with aunts and uncles and cousins, some I haven't seen for 30 years.

My sister put together an awesome slideshow of the Roness family back to my Great-grandparents, Anton Godtfred Gunderson Roness and Maren Anna Nilsen Roness.  One relative put together a huge family tree complete with pictures that must have taken her massive hours but was so helpful to see all the descendents down to the newest, a 6-week old baby who attended.

We had some good food and visiting and even did a little karaoke- here's some of my sisters and a cousin and I singing Come to the Church in the Wildwood. Wow.  Can't wait to do that again, not.  Let's just say you won't be seeing us in concert any time soon.

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family. ~Anthony Brandt

Another One Flew the Cuckoo's Nest

Brian graduated! Craziness.

It was just yesterday he was a sweet little pudgy guy only interested in bugs and legos and super heros.  He's still mostly sweet but certainly not little or pudgy and now is focused on things like college and music and work and friends.

Brian's Grandpa Roland on the left- I was thrilled he was able to come that weekend.

And Gp's on the other side, Kathy and Rich.

We had a great party with tons of friends and I tried to get a picture of everyone that came but I won't post all of them, just the important ones :).

So he graduated, we partied, and now he's off on his own great adventures.  Ya know, this sort of reminds me of that little birdie in the last post.  We spend the first little while just feeding and protecting them and then the next little while teaching them how to fly and survive on their own.  Then, poof!, they're gone--they take off and leave us with an empty nest! Meanwhile, I am left with a mixture of excitement and sadness.

The Little Birdie Who Was Rescued

One must be careful when pruning shrubs.  Once upon a time, I got a little wild trimming the arborvitae shrub next to my flower garden and apparently knocked a little baby Chipping Sparrow out of its nest.  I didn't see it fall but began looking around after the momma starting chirping very (for such a little bird!) loudly at me and trying desperately to distract me the in other direction.  I found him and put him back in the nest.

Then I checked on him after a couple days and he seemed fine. Yay!

And momma's happy too,

but I don't think she trusts me with the pruning shears anymore.

 Meanwhile, this bee was busy slurping juice from a lupine.

 The End.

Actually, I checked again in a few days and Poof! the little birdie was gone, the nest was empty.  Off on his own great adventures I presume. Yay!

The End.

<------- Backing Up A Little <--------

Hi there! ~ It's been awhile! 

I don't think there are any rules about this on Blogspot but I feel as though I shouldn't post about current things until I have gotten caught up on all that has happened since I last posted, which was I don't know about three months ago?!  So here goes with a quick scrapbooking snapshot of a pretty busy spring.........all revolving around our kids of course, which is all good stuff because as much as I might feeling like complaining at times, I am truly enjoying this stage of life.

The show choir season ended on a "high note" as Leanne was asked to fill in and sing the opening solo at their last performance.  She did just fine!  Really fine, actually.  Her mom and dad were very nervous as they had never heard her sing out loud before really and then when she nailed it mom and dad were pretty much bursting with pride... and relief.  Oofda.

She also made great strides :)! in track this spring doing the hurdles.

Brian turned 19 and grajeated from hischool! More on that later.

After quite an ordeal finding the green striped tie,

Landon was an usher for his good friend/cousin, Josh, 

who married Lindsey in a beautiful outdoor wedding.

Landon also turned 21 in June on our anniversary,

and omygosh all I can do is shake my head in disbelief.

That means 22 years of marriage for the old guy and me.

I came home from work one day and caught the kids in a rare moment- playing a game of Catan just the three of them! Priceless.  The look on their faces is more of disgust and not pricelessness but a picture had to be taken nonetheless.

Meistro Brian performing at his piano recital.

Leanne getting her cartilage pierced at Walmart with
her friend, Laura.  It really wasn't that bad.

Leanne started her first real job at Lueken's grocery store, where both of her brothers also work!  So if you shop at Lueken's you are likely to see one or more of them there!

And now....moving on....!